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September 2010

9.13.10 — By Tim John

Hey Wisconsin!

Our time has arrived, the time for us to shout with the only truly effective megaphone we have.

VOTE!

Tomorrow brings to closure our statewide, daily trek to the primary. With the citizens’ united voice, tomorrow night will be the beginning of change in our great state.

On Sunday, the GumboMan delighted our rally with his concoctions, spiced to perfection and to the happy tastes of all present. Shrimp, fish, gumbo, rice, crab cakes and chicken scented the air with fresh, invigorating anticipation. So waits our state.

I have filled the gravel roads, highways, freeways, streets, avenues, and alleys with the spice of a new way. I have poked into the dairy barns, stepped onto the porches, strode into discussion and walked away refreshed. I have touched the hand of unemployment and poverty and promised a better tomorrow, a time ahead when all have a voice, especially those in our Black communities that have been set aside for so long. I have seen our budget catastrophe and have listened to the great ideas proposed by all candidates, a variety vital to attacking the many sides of balancing the mess and addressing the tax burden on all of us.

I know the great stress facing our timber workers, the hopelessness of idle axes and quiet saws and the emptiness of haulers. The frustration of workers for Harley Davidson as a new contract was forged and signed strikes chords with all of us, that reality of cuts and the fear of losing a job despite an agreement. Classrooms are bulging as district budgets dwindle and force layoffs.

Our faith in the future faces daily tests.

I have not flaunted great cure-all plans for our dilemmas. I have not smeared the plans of opponents, only applauded their effort. I have accented the great need for interplay of ideas and an interplay and cooperation between parties and people to end the growing mold of inaction. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Tea Party members and citizens offer a spice rack rich with the means to move this state into the forefront, to make America’s Dairyland a Beacon of Hope for its 49 sisters and brothers.

My promise is to stir the pot, create the blend, and provide the motivation and leadership for action. We are all intelligent enough to see in the campaign rhetoric from all fronts those delicacies of idea that need to be tasted and those stale concepts that only offer more of the tasteless past. We can work together. We can get this done.

We will, with votes, put the heart back into Wisconsin’s government. You have looked in my eyes and share my vision.

Forward this message, this call to VOTE, to all you know.

Tomorrow, take action and we will continue our strides forward.

9.13.10 — By Tim John

Hello Wisconsin Voters!

Fire snapped through Poplar knotholes, crackled blue flame and shot sparks into the branches silhouetting the deepening evening sky. Quiet settled slowly and the crescent moon rose to the accolade of stars. And so our Sunday night “get out the vote” rally at Minor Heir Manor in Mukwonago drew to a close. As David McClurg piped “Amazing Grace”, the embers seemed to glow small beacons of appreciation for the fading repartee.

The gathering reflected the thrust of our campaign, the willingness to incorporate everyone into the plans for a better Wisconsin. Jared Christensen, the youngest at age 17 when he began his campaign to ever run for governor of our state, spoke kind words of support as his candidacy did not achieve enough signatures to gain placement on the ballot. He shared our philosophy of multiple ideas being necessary to solve individual problems instead of one idea as a cure-all for many. He laughed with us at the “no luck” atmosphere of early campaign efforts that brought no audience to speeches and then touched our hearts with reference to the unity of family and friends that became the foundation for moving forward.

Already on the ballot for the November 2 election, Independent candidate Jim Langer also shared the sparks of a new way necessary to lead Wisconsin into a stronger future. He would “love to see Tim on the ballot in November” because the citizens would then have two candidates who believe merging Democratic, Republican, and Independent ideas and working together are the only way problems can be solved. “The state needs guys like us to get Wisconsin going,” he noted after stating that, if he made it, he would in some way take Tim along.

Karri continued her emcee responsibilities by recognizing former Oconomowoc Mayor Marlene Schumacher and moved forward with a brief reflection. She spoke of the setting sun and the encroaching dark, but stated she could “still see a new horizon.” She spoke of a stranger that had been invisible for too long, of a man who pointed out “what life could be if we looked to our hearts” and if we “got uncomfortable” and opened our eyes and hearts to the less fortunate. She spoke of our new light, our vision of making Wisconsin a Beacon of Hope for all states.

How appropriate that the honk of geese and the soft shush of a Heron’s wings joined my walk to the podium. I am never without audience in nature, the creatures of the bushes and trees and those in flight above. I did make sure the door behind the podium was ajar in case things did not go well through my talk and knew the microphone and speakers could quickly be turned into a karaoke night adventure. The GumboMan would certainly keep plying the guests with his wonderful array of New Orleans style Cajun cuisine.

I, as I have from the onset, said this election really wasn’t about me, but about participation. I have stayed positive and I have willingly talked to everyone. That’s what the future must be about, people talking to people. From Neanderthal grunts and eye to eye contact, trust was built. Why can’t we make that happen today? We must break stereotypes. We must look at others and see through and past what we use to judge and see the heart, the true person. We must do what is not in our short term best interests and look at the journey and the future. We must believe we have a better place to go and not allow fear to stop action. Wisconsin must take the step – now.

The state relies on you to vote on Tuesday.

Minor Heir Manor housed our festivities with the surrounding hard and softwoods offering the scents of fall and a welcoming open-air forum. Not a hint of breeze disturbed the sigh of fairies snuggling into milkweed pod beds. I suspected the Trolls of Mount Horeb already snored stoutly against the fading clop of horses steadily pulling an Amish wagon and family home. The lovely water nymphs would be dreaming new teases for any Monday voyagers on the Milwaukee rivers – perhaps I should offer my presence as I await my future that rests in the hands of the electorate on Tuesday. My old car and its many travels this past year or so could certainly use the respite.

That fire snapped again, its smoke curling up, around and through the leaves, stirring their cling and setting a few free. Those rose with the swirl, then fluttered left – right - left in the settle to earth. Darkness wrapped around me as I chatted with those lingering and encouraging, discussing and sharing – looking through the dark with hope grounded in the grassroots, front porch and eye-to-eye trust I offer our state.

With Karri, Roberta and Christian, my solid foundation, I thank you for the loyalty, the work, the voices, and the vision in supporting me through this long campaign. With the close of the polls on Tuesday, I have great hope of sharing across the many miles that separate us a scoop of good old fashioned Wisconsin ice cream in celebration of the first step in putting your voice back into the government of our great Dairy State!

Perhaps J. R. R. Tolkien captures my thoughts in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as Bilbo Baggins leaves the Shire to visit Rivendell and finish his book:

    The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
    Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
    Pursuing it with eager feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
    Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say.

9.11.10 — By Tim John

Good Morning on this September 11

We would be remiss in not taking moments to remember September 11, 2001. During historic events, the activities of those hours become emblazoned in our minds as we listened to or watched the unfolding action through radio and television. The horrors that evolved in the vibrant sunshine and against the blue sky of that day brought stark reality to our nation and brought an incredible outpouring of response for those so deeply effected by the attacks on our homeland. Please, let us each in our own way at some point today take pause in sympathy for the families and friends and in respect for their resiliency and for the tenacity of our country to grow stronger. May God bless those innocent victims that fell on that day and may He continue to touch those saddened families with comfort and assurance.

The current difficult and troubled times require memory, a look back at how recovery was accomplished. A flag, a tad tattered and smeared, rose from the rubble as did a unity of spirit, a oneness in resolve. Americans believed we would step from the soot and smolder and move forward as we always have. Indomitable. We were most certainly tested in the severest possible manner, in a manner of terror that struck the totally innocent, and were shown the need for better proactive planning. We lost our comfort zone, but not the will to persevere.

President Obama has indicated the war that followed 9/11 now draws to a close. Our warriors have and will continue to come home. We have more fallen to grieve, to respect for making the sacrifice for our way of life. Through the sand storms and heat of deserts and across the unfamiliar turf and through the climate of foreign land these men and women carried our beacon and have truly earned a place in all our hearts for their service and for a job incredibly well done.

Wisconsin sent many volunteers to New York in the aftermath of the 2001 attack. Wisconsinites sent money for added support. Wisconsin military has and continues to serve in the war effort. Our state joined in the unification process necessary, joined in an action and in a spirit echoed across all states. We cannot let the oneness of purpose slip away.

Our great state faces crisis – crisis of spirit, crisis of economy, crisis in employment, crisis in education, and crisis in budget. The issues have been creeping up for a long time and now seem to be staring us down, trying to bury us in a slag of hopeless resignation and a waiting silence for someone to do something to create change.

We cannot sit back.

Each Wisconsinite must act, in voice, in idea, in writing, and in voting to make change reality. The lessons of complacency cannot be lost. Our state cannot become a lesson taught by its inaction, by its unwillingness to move against the issues at hand. It begins on Tuesday, September 14 with votes for change.

9.8.10 — By Tim John

Hello! From the “lack of serious primary” candidate,

Well, a Journal/Sentinel headline and ensuing article on September 8 tab Tom Barrett an apparent victor next week. Maybe that translates to “easy” winner and I then become the “wasted my time” foe in a pointless campaign. After all, on several occasions, including in this article, I have been labeled “nominal” and you all know the story about “snowball’s chance in hell.”

IF the possible 28% turnout becomes reality, then Tom and the Democratic Party, with an expenditure of $2.4 million this past year per the Journal/Sentinel story penned by Patrick Marley, Jason Stein and Lee Bergquist, have perhaps successfully purchased the primary victory. Two Republican candidates have spent a total of $9.9 million and have a “nominal” challenger in Scott Paterick, not even mentioned in the story line. How ironic that a meager 28% turnout would be the highest since 1964.

Easy.

The right campaign effort is not easy, not nominal. I cannot sit at a desk and use a myriad of hirelings to issue a steady flow of high cost, major media advertising. I would not even pretend that was a campaign. I could not sit on my hoped they exist laurels and hold timely, well-positioned press conferences to generate pro me news stories. I certainly would debate my party challengers so an audience could judge the candidates for itself.

Old fashioned as it may be, the front porch and the grassroots formats offer the best chance to meet, to talk and to determine the qualities of a candidate sans the spin generated by expensive efforts to shield the person. A personal contact presents the human, not the hidden in words castings that hopefully lure voters who too often and too lazily like to be told who and what is best. Look me in the eyes as I address your questions head on and see the honesty and the passion I have for this state and its problems that need a grassroot resolution. You cannot read that look in a newspaper nor sense its message on a TV ad.

I do not boast pages upon pages of pretty syllables pressed into get me elected posturing. How can a “new” – not a re-elected incumbent – governor have all these issues solved via proposals prior to taking office and prior to meeting with other elected and appointed persons that just may have really viable ideas? How can proposals exist without input from those most affected by the failures of the past? I do not have such presumption, only an assumption that I must reach out to those in office, to the pols, to the people and to the experienced men and women of business, labor, and farming and then, as the newly elected leader, move this group into a unity of purpose that results in real and effective policy and action.

Candidates have a variety of experience – none have sat behind the Governor’s desk. I won’t waste a single person’s thoughts and I will certainly want a Lieutenant Governor with a voice that buttresses or challenges and, at the very least, provides serious input in the decision making process. I will want effort and cooperation, not the cracking stance that refuses to bend in the winds of change. A time exists for stoic resistance; this is not the time if Wisconsin is to emerge from crisis.

My candidacy as well as my governorship are not and will not be “easy” and “nominal”. If the voters turn out in numbers beyond 28%, then they will see the return of “we can get this done” effort that enjoins all parties in the action required. I will challenge and I will take on any challenger in productive dialogue. I will not be intimidated or cowed by the power or the scent of money. I am foremost true to my values that I believe will be reflected in the return of true leadership, a leadership based in the voice of the people of Wisconsin.

We must not purchase the concept that this is not a seriously contested primary. Do not buy the messages of ads, the messages that Tom or any other candidate have the problems in hand and ready to solve. Do all those ads and articles, do the finger pointing and negativity really offer what we need to move forward? Do get out and vote. Get everyone you know to join you in the process. Let that expenditure put the citizens’ voice in the run for Governor in November.

Join me and make the investment – a trip to the polls next Tuesday only requires common sense and a few more cents for gas.

Easy.

9.7.10 — By Tim John

Wisconsin, the Time Beckons!

Labor Day arrived, a partly cloudy, chance of showers, but great weather anyway Monday. President Obama attended the Labor Fest program at Maier Festival Park and faced the task of addressing Wisconsin’s and the nation’s staggering job loss statistics with new plans. Free tickets distributed by the Milwaukee Area Labor Council were required to hear his speech and the President speaking from the Miller Stage ironically placed him in an area honoring one of the many key businesses that grew Milwaukee’s labor market and had him present at a time when union and management have worked together to keep Harley Davidson jobs in Wisconsin.

The September 6 Journal/Sentinel reported a 15% “underemployment” rate (“the unemployed, those who have given up the job hunt and part time workers unable to secure full time employment”) and a total of 155,270 lost jobs in our state, statistics that were tough associates for a celebration of Wisconsin labor. At the website for the National Jobs for All Coalition (www.njfac.org/jobnews), a list appears reflecting national data on unemployment.

In the U.S., 14.9 million are listed as “officially unemployed.” In that that total which translates to a 9.6% unemployment rate, 16.3% are African American and 45.4% are Black teens. The list added “Hidden Unemployment” figures, a total of 8.9 million citizens working part time because full time work is not available. Adding another 6.0 million people who “want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics” and the unemployed total became 29.8 million or 18.6% of the labor force (www.njfac.org).

Staggering.

The parade and the day’s events celebrated working Wisconsin as well they should. We have a wonderful history of successful farming, business, and industry that grew from ideas into the entrepreneurship that built our state. All candidates for office know this history and want to move Wisconsin back into the forefront of states’ with solid employment and opportunity. We cannot continue to ignore the plight – here a truly weak word - of our Black citizens who have suffered joblessness far beyond the more recent declines. The Coalition’s data certainly has mirrors in our state and all candidates need to be focused first and foremost on these forgotten or bypassed Wisconsinites.

The feel, the emotion of no work yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow coupled with the sense of responsibility to family and future must weigh as heavily on our leaders as it does those in the too long throes of this blight. Without the insulting presumption of saying “I understand how you feel,” leadership must be present in these areas devastated by loss of hope, must hear the tone in voices ignored or disregarded, must through discussion offer real promise for a better time ahead. This requires the thick skin necessary to accept the anger and frustration with an open empathy, not apathy. This requires footsteps into areas not trod in the past to offer personal presence as a demonstration of a new way coming. The new way must begin with viable planning that includes the people who have most felt the dismay of the current work world, must begin with voices from groups that have committed to the issue, not the dogma of party lines or the dictates of major contributors to campaigns.

Working on unemployment means setting aside “what’s in it for me” greed when funds are publically or privately offered. The plan must be set in place so funds can be appropriately and diligently applied to support entrepreneurship, to support rebuilding, re-educating, and reclaiming the talented work force available in the Black communities.

With the cool and breezy dawn of Tuesday, the season again invades thoughts. With family, I attended Sunday worship at St. Timothy’s and enjoyed the invigoration of a “good ol’ Baptist revival.” I am likely not headed to sainthood, but for a brief moment did enjoy the context. Using Racine’s Labor Fest to reach out with a hand of hope, I generated more support for our campaign and on a radio show, Karri, Roberta and Christian enjoyed the chance to “have a say” with me on the air. The week ahead brings to closure the primary effort and puts the future of our great state in the voting hands of the citizens, hands that must show up en masse at polls to put us back on proper course.

Those not so long ago neighboring farmers, working together and sharing equipment, thrashed crops and knew the feeling of a better tomorrow made possible through the collective effort. The “womenfolk” gathered in kitchens to create the noonday meal and kids trundled water buckets to keep parched throats fresh and to damp away the sweat and chaff. In those times, a dreaded barn fire from spontaneous combustion or electrical storm brought a community of help to save livestock and stored crops, to offer shoulders and muscle for the rebuilding the next day would bring. We have moved far, too far from that concept of togetherness in good and bad.

We are all Wisconsin and Wisconsin is in trouble. We know the “fronts” of this storm; every candidate has espoused them, but only one has truly walked, talked and offered a genuine hand for the rebuilding that must come. Pages of ideas, those stalks and stems of a crop ready to reap, must now be thrashed into a workable tomorrow. That can only happen with an old-fashioned neighborhood ethic that reflects the manner in which Wisconsin grew. Our bins can again be full, but not until a core attitude changes. That, my friends, has to be the start, the beacon to lead the way.

I offer that fundamental change, the move away from politics and party lines to a farmer’s, businessman’s, industrial leader’s, laborer’s – male’s and female’s - good old fashioned “let’s get it done, now, and the right way” ethic.

We have staggered long enough.

9.3.10 — By Tim John

Moving Forward Towards the Primary

A Sandhill Crane squarbbles low flight across the open pond water dotted with lily pads. With its settle into the mist along the shoreline shallows, the insistent voice rasps with the sunrise. The 58° chill on this crystal September morning quickly calls to mind the coming autumnal equinox on the 22nd. Seasons change.

The haze evaporates, reveals a farmers leaned wait as her Holsteins saunter into the milking parlor. The open loft door exhales odors of late summer bales sweated into stacks for winter bedding and feed. Grandfather and great-grandfather stories cling to the hay fork track in the peak when loose hay was lifted by rope, pulley, and apparatus into the upper level, then stacked and moved with pitchforks and hard, chaff-dirtied work perspired through very long days. Perhaps her smile reveals her mind’s eye trip to a grandpa’s tales of thrashing machines and a co-op of farmers sharing its use by moving it from farm to farm as crops ripened.

A soft breeze ripples the pond, distant mustard weed, and her grey hair – perhaps pushes thoughts away as she follows the final milk cow towards its stanchion.

Foundations.

Wisconsinites know on what their great state is built. Little family farms, fledgling businesses, hopeful industries, ingenuity, dreams, and tenacity of purpose moved us forward. Flexibility with the need for change and perseverance through the process kept us strong. The fiber of each citizen held fast to core values. In recent years – too many years – stagnation has gripped us, held us, and challenged our firm base with threats of cracks and chips in mortar.

Wisconsin must move forward and must reinforce the foundations. The budget must be balanced by eliminating the waste that squanders vital cash on programs not working. We must get men and women back to work through innovative approaches, through creative thinking that is outside the box of believing a government is responsible for creating jobs. Entrepreneurship and the courage to follow-through, the willingness to ask for help, and the tenacity to succeed created breweries, expanded farming, timber industries, and countless companies. Private investors must look to the home front and public assistance must be available when plans come to fruition.

We must formulate an educational system that doesn’t simply focus on a federally established set of scores that indicate success. Children and teens must learn beyond data and facts, must move past the fear of “grades”. We cannot forget growth in self-confidence, problem-solving, application of information, creativity, and appreciation of the arts. Physical change and emotional development must be recognized and supported.

We must bolster our dairy industry. Moves towards organic farming and efforts to improve and legalize product sales from the farm must continue if we want to save the family farm and, at the same time, help corporate farms generate better profits. Too many tractors sit by roadsides with For Sale signs draped across worn wheels. Too many farms become subdivisions or have fallow acreage begging productivity.

The voice of Wisconsin must support change that holds fast to basic values. We are the Dairy State. We rely on blue collar workmanship that brings quality results. We treat people fairly with open respect and a willingness to dialog, to share ideas and solutions.

Wisconsin’s voice must rasp at the voting booths and with a large turnout, bring us back to our basics and move us forward in new vision. We Wisconsinites must “squarbble”, must settle in the shallow fog of stagnant posturing and politics, and insist with our votes that a new beacon will guide our state. We need the multi-colored sunrise of September 15 bringing rays of renewed hope across our many streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes – across our unincorporated crooks in the road, our towns, villages, and cities and across our absolutely striking countryside.

Yes, seasons change.